The present invention relates to a method of and apparatus for drying and debarking logs, or more specifically, cants, that is logs that have been preprocessed by cutting them longitudinally on opposite sides while leaving the remaining surface untouched. Thus, the cross-section of the cant is substantially circular but with two flat sides. Such cants are used frequently, but not exclusively, for building log cabins or houses. It should be understood that while the following description specifically refers to cants it is equally applicable to round logs, or wood of square cross-section such as railroad ties.
Prior art methods and apparatus for drying and debarking logs and cants are cumbersome and require a great amount of time and energy and are not suitable for a continuous or in-line operation.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an efficient method and machine for drying and debarking wood, especially logs and cants. More specifically, the invention aims at reducing the amount of time for drying and removing bark from logs or cants, to several minutes instead of days that is presently required in kiln drying.
It is another object of this invention to provide a relatively compact and efficient machine in which all operations from the removal of small tree limbs to the completely dried and smooth-finish cant can be accomplished in a continuous, in-line fashion.